Jay Presson Allen

Biography

Jay Presson Allen (March 3, 1922 – May 1, 2006) was an American screenwriter, playwright, stage director, television producer and novelist.

Born as Jacqueline Presson in San Angelo, Texas, she claimed to have had "no education to speak of", although she attended Miss Hockaday's School for Young Ladies. She moved to New York City in the early 1940s, where she married "the first grown man who asked me". After the marriage ended in divorce, she started to make a living by writing scripts for television as well as having a novel, Spring Riot (1948). In 1955, she changed her name to Jay Presson Allen when she married Lewis M. Allen, a film and stage producer.

Serving her creative apprenticeship in live television, Presson Allen wrote her first film script, Wives and Lovers, in 1963, though most chroniclers prefer to list her multifaceted screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) as her inaugural movie effort.

She scored her biggest success in 1966, when she adapted Muriel Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the stage; three years later, her screenplay adaptation of the same property gained her an Academy Award nomination.

Her subsequent Broadway efforts included Forty Carats and Tru, while her screen credits included such projects as Cabaret (1972), Funny Lady (1975) and Just Tell Me What You Want (1980, from her own novel).

She served as executive producer for Travels With My Aunt (her second collaboration with Maggie Smith), It's My Turn (1980), Prince of the City (1981) and Deathtrap (1982).

Her last film work was her screenplay for the 1990 remake of the classic, Lord of the Flies. However, she disliked the finished product and insisted that her name be removed from the credits. On television, Jay Presson Allen created the long-running series Family, which starred James Broderick and Sada Thompson.

Wikipedia contributors, "Jay Presson Allen," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jay Presson Allen&oldid=193552287 (accessed February 24, 2008). [Read More...]

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